We all know the SEC is set to look a lot different when Oklahoma and Texas join the league starting with the 2024 football season. But what exactly those changes will entail remains a bit of a mystery.
One thing we can say with relative certainty: The two-division format is almost definitely heading into its final season and will likely be replaced by either an eight or nine-game format with three permanent conference opponents and the rest rotating.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey addressed these possibilities during an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show, implying that the league’s spring meetings in Destin, Florida, could be a pivotal time in the decision-making process.
“We have, really, between now and I think our spring meetings in Destin to go back to the fundamentals of why we’ve looked at different models,” Sankey said on The Paul Finebaum Show Friday. “Generally, a single division. Key question, eight or nine games. A lot of discussion about permanent opponents, one or three? And here’s the caution for everyone. We’re won’t have a schedule with only three teams on it, for example. We will have a schedule with eight or nine games, and the weighting of the schedule, the analysis of the schedule, has to be done with the full schedule. One of the opportunities here is to play everybody every other year and one or three teams every year. That’s a much tighter strength of schedule balance than what we’ve experienced in divisions.
“We know we can narrow the competitive disparity, and I think that’s an important part that gets lost in the conversation. Now, will things stay as some people think they are? We’ll see. Those are the decisions to be made between now and the end of May.”
It seems there are still deliberations going on in determining the scheduling format going forward, but with the 2023 season on the horizon, the league is coming close to decision time.
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